At present, there is a small number of types of CODEC capable of compressing and transmitting an image in 4K2K size (for Hi-Vision which is four times as high as the resolution of 1920×1080) used for digital cinema or in super-Hi-Vision size (16 times as high as Hi-Vision) using one device, and the device is expensive. Therefore, when an image of the 4K2K size or super-Hi-Vision size (hereafter referred to as a super-high-definition image) is transmitted, there is a demand to divide the image into 4 or 16 sections and transmit them using a plurality of inexpensive Hi-Vision codec units. Furthermore, there is a demand to realize the transmission of the super-Hi-Vision image using the Internet protocol (IP) network which is inexpensive in line cost. As a similar divisional transmission, there is also a demand to transmit left and right images in a 3-dimensional (3D) image as Hi-Vision images.
There is an example as another system of calculating as a first time a value obtained by adding a commonly determined encode delay time to a system time clock (STC) counter value in each of a plurality of encoding apparatus. In this example, the stream generated including the first time is transmitted to an encoding apparatus associated one to one with the encoding apparatus. In this system, a decoding apparatus adds a decoding delay time to the value of stream fluctuation, and defines as the second time the value obtained by adding the first time to the maximum value determined commonly among a plurality of decoding apparatus as a value which is assumed as the maximum sum. The decoding apparatus outputs decoded image data to a composition unit which composes image data at the second time. [Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-279082